Stone tools are arguably the most important artifacts we have in telling the story of human evolution. While they’re not as helpful as finding actual bones, the tools are much less fragile and can give researchers a lot of valuable insights. The way a tool was made tells us about the individual’s hand strength, for example, and maybe even the toolmaker’s cognition and language skills.

In the absence of fossils, stone tools can be an important way to document that humans were even present